EP 103: Desert Sheep Hunting in Arizona. In this episode of the Epic Outdoors Podcast. The Epic Outdoors Crew sits down to talk about our recent trip to Arizona to hunt Desert sheep. On this hunt Jason harvested a giant ram that has the possibility of being the largest Nelsoni Desert Sheep ever harvested in Arizona. This is a legendary ram and today Jason and Adam recount the story to us. We also talk about a ram that was taken by one of Adams clients who is 79 years old. This ram completes a 52 year quest for the 4 North American Sheep.
Disclaimer: this text was produced through an automated transcription service and likely contains errors. Please listen to the original audio for exact content.
00:00:02:01 –> 00:00:05:05
A ram like this can pretty much command whatever authority he wants.
00:00:05:13 –> 00:00:14:11
That would be the number one Nelson I’ve taken in the state of Arizona. We just kind of dissected the rest of the unit, Adam and I, and split up here and there. Anything to do with Western Big Game.
00:00:17:22 –> 00:00:18:06
Welcome
00:00:18:06 –> 00:00:21:09
To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.
00:00:21:27 –> 00:01:32:29
Hey everybody. Jason Carter, as well as the Epic Outdoors Crew. Been a long time since we’ve all been in the same room together in one sitting, one place, but here we are. It’s at the end of the hunting season. We’re back in the office killing it. We got Chris with us here. Got John, Jeff and Adam and just got done hunting. So anyway, before we get started, we do want to thank Under Armour. Appreciate them and their support. Wore a lot of their stuff. Of course they, they still have some inventory out there, don’t they? Jeff? Yes they do. Got some inventory out there, the Raider pen and whatnot. We’ve had incredible reviews on a lot of that stuff. Of course, we don’t work with any companies that suck. All of our guys are awesome, so do wanna appreciate them. Let let everybody know out there who’s supported Epic, whether it be in print and digital and everything else. We appreciate them. All of our, all of our advertisers. So anyways, we get started. I guess we’re gonna, we just kind of wanted to recap. We got done sheep hunting and you don’t get a sheep hunt every day except for Adam. He gets to guide a lot of them and spends 90 days a year working with sheep and killing ’em. Of course, you know, there’s a lot of conservation groups out there out that are putting ’em on the mountain and you’re taking ’em off.
00:01:35:08 –> 00:01:36:15
But we’re paying to put ’em off.
00:01:38:23 –> 00:01:38:29
So
00:01:39:06 –> 00:01:42:16
Take one. The saying is take one, put one back now. That’s
00:01:42:16 –> 00:01:48:26
Right. Give back, give back. So anyway, well, let’s start this off. Bronson, give us started off here.
00:01:49:24 –> 00:02:09:03
Well, we talked a little bit about sheep last week when everybody else was gone. John, Chris and I were here. So we kind of had a Q and A podcast, but, and we looted that we’re heading south to the, that’s not the Sunshine State in Arizona. What is it? What is it? What is it? Land of Enchantment New New Mexico cat Die. The cacti state. Let’s just say the sharp pokey state land of Enchantment
00:02:09:03 –> 00:02:09:09
In
00:02:09:09 –> 00:02:29:17
New Mexico State. I’m sure all of you Arizona folks out there are offended that we don’t know Your nickname. Boroughs, the borough state, maybe. Were we hunted? There were boroughs everywhere. Oh my gosh. But anyway, Arizona was nice. It was 10 degrees here. Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon State. That’s okay.
00:02:30:06 –> 00:02:31:04
Did Jeff just look it up?
00:02:31:07 –> 00:02:51:29
John just did. So I like the cactus state better because man, burrows cactus, there are a lot of cactus. We had a lot of, lot of sharp pokey things. But anyway, I had an awesome, awesome trip down there. Jason, why don’t you, you told me to talk, but it’s your freaking tack. So why don’t you say what, what you got, Jason, you drew a tag. Did you buy or didd you buy one? Yeah,
00:02:53:26 –> 00:03:19:25
I did pay the normal state tag fee, but I didn’t buy no governor’s tag. Yeah. So I did, of course, a lot of you guys out there applying and, and gaining bonus points for sheep. And we’ve been doing that for 20 plus years. I’d had 22 points. One was a loyalty and one was a hundred ed point. So you got 20 years of applying and at least gaining points. And so that was back when I think you had to front the fees and 20, 23 or
00:03:19:25 –> 00:03:20:02
Four years
00:03:20:02 –> 00:03:47:07
Old credit card checks. I was, I was broker and broke and writing credit card checks ’cause they would take a personal check. And anyway, it finally paid off. Still drew in the random draw. It was still a a, a lucky draw. There was nothing, nothing. No Max points got that tag. And so they’ve been having one, one tag in this area. And of course we’ve done a little bit of research and we knew that nobody knew a lot about it, but there was a potential for a great ram. Only
00:03:47:07 –> 00:04:06:13
Been hunted for maybe five or six years as as yeah. Prior to this year. And so yeah, that’s always intriguing and a lot of unknown even from the biologist that we talked to. Yeah, I mean they can tell you the basics about it, where the sheep came from, you know, but as far as distribution, they’re not annually or even every three years flying this stuff. So
00:04:06:13 –> 00:04:46:04
That’s right. And that’s what, that’s what she said. Aaron down there is, it was a great resource, but, but even, even she says, you know, this is relatively, I’m gonna be able to help you a little like on basic stuff. But not that they knew anything specific. They do have a guzzler in the unit, but none of the sheep are using it. It’s, there’s a lot of other waters and different things with ranchers and, and other things going on. So anyway, it was kind of a, you know, Adam and I, we know like in here, in our home state in, in Bronson, you can talk about this too, but we’re gonna get a sheep here in Utah. And I, and I got lucky and Drew years ago, of course we all went on that hunt and what a great experience. John lost a little bit of gear, but, well, he burned it up.
00:04:46:04 –> 00:05:16:07
But anyway, he had a picture in one hand, a mama and the kids and a match in the other hand. And he made her out. So kind of a fun hunt. We should go into that someday. We should go into that someday. But anyway, it was one of those things where we know we’re gonna get our desert. We’re gonna be able to, you know, it’s not about killing a sheep. We’re gonna get one in our home state. And, and Adam, there’s some units that that Adam can draw right now. And so, you know, we know that’s gonna happen. It’s just, but you would use an Arizona tag or use a Nevada tag to kill a special brand. Go big.
00:05:16:07 –> 00:05:19:13
Yeah. And that’s, you’d already killed one. So that’s kind of the mode you were in is Yeah.
00:05:19:15 –> 00:05:26:11
But then when I got the tag and I and my dad killed a 1 76 big, what we, what I call a fister twister. Big o freaking Mexican.
00:05:27:19 –> 00:05:27:28
Yeah,
00:05:27:28 –> 00:05:31:00
Yeah. I’m like, and then I drew this tag and I’m like, what
00:05:31:00 –> 00:05:48:28
Did I do? They don’t look like that. ’cause these are Nelson and I, yeah, Nelson Desert Bighorn, yeah. Northern part of Arizona. I mean the northern third. Yep. So, but yeah, you were a little bit that way. But then again, it’s like any angle you can get to draw a non-resident desert sheep tag when is, oh
00:05:48:28 –> 00:06:00:20
No, you’re not supposed supposed to turn those back. But I gotta tell you, I thought about it. ’cause I did point guard that thing and I, and I don’t know why I gave him five bucks. Right. But you know what the wrath Bronson would’ve given you? I of 12.
00:06:00:26 –> 00:06:20:19
He wouldn’t have done it. I’d have broke his legs and he wouldn’t have been able to drive to the office. But we went down roughly six days early or something. We had Thanksgiving. So that was kind of Thanksgiving had we had get that Thanksgiving finished off, we had to get down, we had to take care of some of the office stuff here. And then you headed down there five or six days before the hunt basically?
00:06:20:20 –> 00:06:28:11
Yeah, I headed like down, I think on a Wednesday and actually glassed up my ram that Wednesday. Bronson was coming in, I think Thursday. I
00:06:28:11 –> 00:06:29:19
Came down that same day. And
00:06:29:19 –> 00:06:30:25
Then we, oh, maybe later that day
00:06:30:29 –> 00:06:32:28
He came down Tuesday. I, okay, that’s
00:06:32:28 –> 00:06:38:18
Night it, that’s it. And then we blitzed it. So we videoed him, but we didn’t know what we were looking at. And Bron two miles,
00:06:38:19 –> 00:06:39:05
Well he
00:06:39:05 –> 00:06:39:16
Looks good,
00:06:39:16 –> 00:06:39:19
But
00:06:40:02 –> 00:06:40:04
Probably,
00:06:40:11 –> 00:06:43:13
I don’t know, two miles and dropper. The deep
00:06:43:13 –> 00:06:52:28
Dropper. Yeah. So the video was okay, but then, then we just kind of, we just kind of dissected the rest of the unit, Adam and I, and split up here and there and, and then came back to the camp
00:06:52:28 –> 00:07:21:28
Saving this for basically the day before the hunt. ’cause there was a bunch of sheep in, in a canyon. We knew we’d pretty much be able to find them. Yeah. Barring something weird. A lion blows ’em all out or something weird. We figured, all right, those are there. Big group of sheep, let’s you know. And we did find other groups of sheep all throughout the unit. Yeah, we did Friday. We basically, you and I, you went and checked a group of sheep. I went back in to, kind of looked from a different spot here. And luckily we did because you couldn’t have seen them from where you went to See’em the
00:07:21:28 –> 00:07:38:22
First day. No, they had moved a little bit. So we, and this stuff’s rugged country. It’s not like there’s a lot of country, like in Nevada and stuff, you can drive around and really access units and it’s what you call an easy she pump. But, you know, and even in Arizona has a lot of that. But man, this particular unit, not that it was hard. It just wasn’t,
00:07:39:09 –> 00:07:45:29
Can’t drive around from side by sizing glass at all. You’re hiking an hour to a point and then you’re glassing two miles away from there, you know, or
00:07:45:29 –> 00:07:59:16
Four miles. When I first picked these, I will say a little plug for ov, those B TXs were amazing. It was four miles on my Onyx maps. Four miles, 4.06 from where I was sitting to that. And that was from B TXs. And then of course, you know,
00:07:59:21 –> 00:08:02:16
Thank goodness for that going away shot that sheep give you that.
00:08:02:16 –> 00:08:02:22
Yeah.
00:08:03:01 –> 00:08:05:07
The white butts out there and the distance. Yeah,
00:08:05:07 –> 00:08:47:29
The white butts gave ’em away, moved in on ’em and there’s 35 sheep staring at you. So it was kind of fun. It it, Adam got a better look at him the night before the hunt the night. And we knew, we kind of knew he might, he was looking in some different country, but also right where that sheep was. And, and of course I want Adam, that’s the one thing I wanna express. There’s a lot of you guys out there that are, that are, you know, may, may draw a tag and whatnot. But you know, Adam, it it’s so much more comforting. Adam’s put his hands on, what, 90 sheep maybe, I don’t know, 60, 80, 90. I lose track. And, and he’ll end up over a hundred here in a year. And there’s something to be said for being able to judge ’em. We, you know, I can find sheep and you can find sheep.
00:08:48:07 –> 00:09:37:00
It, it’s, but judging ’em and knowing what you’re looking at, and I think that’s part of, like, when you see our statistics in the magazine course, epic. We cover all these units that non-residents can apply for and things. And you see the, and the stats help you, the stats help you like, oh, it’s nice to know there’s 15 inch base sheep there. But to actually know a 15 versus a 16 or a 15 versus a 14 or a 13 even, and there’s beautiful sheep that are hitting thirteens. How do you, how do you judge that when you don’t put your hands on him? And, and that’s what was nice when Adam, and of course I cornered him a couple of times close to the kill and, and he doesn’t wanna make the final call and nobody does. There’s not a sheep outfitter out there that’s just gonna start throwing out scores because it, they’ve all walked up on sheep that weren’t quite what you think. And, and so, you know, he’s wanting me to make the final call, but I want him to make the final call. I just kept saying, Adam, would you shoot this? Well hell yeah,
00:09:37:01 –> 00:09:58:10
I’d shoot that. You know, I told you that the night before that for some reason when we were and Chris were gonna have to listen to watch the kill video because it’s all on video. But some reason, whether it was the breeze or something, Jason, my earplug, Jason couldn’t hear. He had an earplug and he couldn’t hear me whispering, you know, and, and so
00:09:58:10 –> 00:09:59:14
Yeah, fast forward to opening morning.
00:10:00:01 –> 00:10:13:26
Well, yeah, so the night before, I had a great view of him. They’re still a mile after two miles away, but the sun’s beaten on him. Perfect. And I got, you know, and the video you bring home isn’t as good as the look I got through my scope.
00:10:13:26 –> 00:10:16:07
It’s not because it’s not three D you can see around that horn in
00:10:16:07 –> 00:10:19:13
The scope. Yes. And when I saw, and I’m like, oh, this, there’s no question.
00:10:19:13 –> 00:10:24:05
Well, he, well, and this ram had a specific dark ring on his left side, which is weird. It it was weird.
00:10:24:17 –> 00:10:26:11
Didn’t have it on the other side, which we didn’t,
00:10:26:11 –> 00:10:31:10
Well, didn’t on that side. So Adam’s like, I’ve got the dark ring ram, and by the way, he’s heavy as shizz.
00:10:31:20 –> 00:10:36:17
And I did say Shizz darna shizz. My wife’s listening to this. I did say shizz.
00:10:36:22 –> 00:10:44:20
And so, and, and if Adam says he is heavy as shizz, I’m thinking he was, who am I to question that? Because again, he’s put his hands on so many sheep and this ram,
00:10:44:27 –> 00:11:10:01
He had a different shape. Even the other sheep that are there, there’s rams that were, that looked, I don’t think they were much longer if they were longer, but they looked, they were shallower curl. And they came up and turn it up. This one is a deep, just a deep drop. And I call it kind of the hat picture a heart and, and it, and it goes high up off the head and then dives more straight down versus a true circle and back, A true circle
00:11:10:01 –> 00:11:11:25
And back. So high back
00:11:12:01 –> 00:11:15:13
And around and then down. And he’s never gonna push it around. He’s never gonna
00:11:15:13 –> 00:11:16:24
Be a vista twister’s not, he’s never
00:11:16:24 –> 00:11:17:23
Gonna look that way’s not, he’s
00:11:17:23 –> 00:11:20:29
Not, he’s just, and and there’s Nelson, I here in Nevada that they all
00:11:21:05 –> 00:11:32:11
Ally. They look like that. There’s a lot of them that are more circular, tighter, tighter curl. And they’re coming up and they’re a curl in a half and they look 180 or 90 inches and they’re 1 65 or 75. They
00:11:32:11 –> 00:11:33:16
Look retardedly awesome. Yeah,
00:11:33:18 –> 00:12:11:16
They do. And they have the look. And that was partly what you’re talking about earlier. Not that you thought you had a bad tag, but you thought, did I get the right tag for the look of sheep you thought you wanted in your life? And big. And, and you know, that’s one thing sheep can get there different ways. But the one thing on sheep that I always say, and you gotta know, you hit it on it, you’ve gotta know your basis. And it’s unique to the species and the area. But if you’re, if you’re really heavy, you’re, and you’re a low dropper, I’ve never been, ever been unpleasantly surprised like, oh crap, he’s not as big as I thought. It’s always the other way. And
00:12:11:16 –> 00:12:27:23
That it’s always the other way and that way. True. And Adam and I, so, so we kept going back to the pictures of the last two sheep that were killed. And Adam and I are like, if that’s a hundred and seventy, seventy one inch, which they both are and they’re both have 15 inch bases, what are we
00:12:27:23 –> 00:12:45:08
Looking for? And they were young. Are we looking at, were five or six year old rams and they were low to mid fifteens on the base 15 and two to four, I forget exactly and I forget lengths, but maybe 33 to five, four. Yes. You know, they were, but they were more tipped. They weren’t broomed at at all yet. Really?
00:12:46:11 –> 00:12:47:23
One of ’em is five years old. Yeah.
00:12:48:07 –> 00:12:49:14
And still one 70
00:12:49:14 –> 00:12:54:26
And 170. So yeah. So that’s what we were, we kept looking at that, which helps. Again, he, he
00:12:54:26 –> 00:13:14:11
Knew, knew this thing had so much more ba basal mass, but he packed it so much and he dropped so low. When you get a big open curl like that, a lot of times the visual perception is he’s thinner than he than he really is. Yeah. Because there’s a big op, if there’s a tight fist and you just got a bunch of horn covering itself almost, you’re like, ah, he’s so heavy when really he’s
00:13:14:16 –> 00:13:15:24
13 and a half based. Yeah. They’re
00:13:15:24 –> 00:13:16:02
Not, who
00:13:16:02 –> 00:13:42:07
Knows? Well, you can go back to the Rams now, remember the year you guys did the Nevada, the two rams together, you killed two rams in one year. Yeah. And and these are the, those are a hundred percent these different Look, these are Yeah. And they’re same unit. This is the ideal. Yeah. Like if you were really comparing two different rams, those two rams, you guys killed in that, in that unit in Nevada was the exact things you’re talking about. You got a ram that’s built more like yours Jason. Yeah. The one you killed. And then you got, he was
00:13:42:07 –> 00:13:44:04
Heavy Adam. I mean that sucker with 15, 6, 15 and
00:13:44:04 –> 00:13:49:11
Years old, he was a half, 15 and a half. And he was 40, but low dropper and carried it, the other
00:13:49:11 –> 00:13:50:25
One. And he netted 180 2 officially and
00:13:50:25 –> 00:13:51:11
A half. Yeah.
00:13:51:17 –> 00:13:54:14
And then the other one was what we call the fist or twister, whatever.
00:13:54:21 –> 00:13:58:11
Yeah. 14 and a quarter and looked one 90. He
00:13:58:11 –> 00:13:59:20
In pictures, he looked one 90 and he went, what,
00:13:59:25 –> 00:14:01:06
1 77 or something. But
00:14:01:06 –> 00:14:08:07
If you put ’em next to each other and you asked 95% of the guys and you said, which ram would you shoot? Which Ram’s gonna score more
00:14:08:08 –> 00:14:11:13
Or which one’s bigger, 90% or more? Pick the fist
00:14:11:13 –> 00:14:35:26
Or twister, I don’t know are gonna, and that’s the one thing, ram thing. And and they came from the same unit. They’re the same spot. Subspecies. There’s, and that’s, and that’s what’s funny, even though we’re down there, it was nice to look at, to look at sheep that had been taken, you know, and like in con contrast that to deer, you would never say, well, I’m in Colorado, I need to look at some pictures of some deer that have been taken versus the deer that have been taken in Utah. You know, when you see a big one. Yeah. You don’t have to ask anybody. Yeah.
00:14:36:07 –> 00:14:43:04
Unless you’re in a weird desert unit where they have tiny bodies or something. You wanna know stuff like That’s right. Like southern Nevada or Southern Arizona or
00:14:43:04 –> 00:14:57:22
So, and I’ve noticed with you, Adam, on a, on a few of the times that I’ve been with you and even like my, my sheep in Utah, you’ll take a, I mean, you’re not not quick to jump to conclusions. You’re gonna look at him for a while before you decide what you think of his mass. You’re gonna look at him
00:14:57:22 –> 00:15:17:22
For him. Well, and you want ’em from the, the head on, the head on. You can a lot of times see the base as the best head on. Yeah. But then the midway point to the end, you see it from behind. But a lot of times behind they look better than they are. No. Look, they all look massive. And it depends. You judge body size. Your ram in Arizona had a big body and we could tell that we, his body in relation to all the other rams,
00:15:17:27 –> 00:15:18:13
His body was
00:15:18:17 –> 00:15:32:22
Tarded. You could see that he was a stocky, big old stud. So these desert sheep, you’re talking about a 200 pound animal, you get one that’s one 50 and, and, and has, you know, horns that look like they’re giant may just be because he is on a smaller body,
00:15:32:22 –> 00:15:46:24
You know. Well, and that’s another thing we’ve talked about dwarf sheep. Yeah. At times. And guys have been, you know, unpleasantly surprised at times that they’re looking for rocky dolls. Yeah. They’re looking for a big ram. And it’s, and again it goes, there’s just a hundred things that are going through your mind. And so bottom
00:15:46:26 –> 00:15:50:25
Line, we knew the shape that he had, the bases we knew were, were big.
00:15:50:29 –> 00:16:19:00
Any period. Well, it kept going back to what you said, and I think that’s a pivotal part of this. And, and, and for the, those guys that are listening to, you know, future sheep hunters that are gonna get the next set of tags this next year is like what you said is mass. If you got mass and it’s that heart shaped ram, you know, you are not gonna be disappointed. You can’t be. So we fast forward to, I’m laying on the gun and this ram decides to get up and make a death march Right. To us. And keep in mind we’re talking lots of sheep in here. You guys know that you were there. We,
00:16:19:01 –> 00:16:23:08
We kept our distance and outta sight of these sheep because the wind was basically bad blowing
00:16:23:08 –> 00:16:23:17
To him.
00:16:24:01 –> 00:16:37:07
And we stayed out around the corner and, and we could see a little group of sheep, you know, with some dink grams with them. And then oh, midday he decided the views he was with, I mean, we’re at the end of the round. There’s really not a lot of breeding activity, but they’re just still hanging
00:16:37:07 –> 00:16:39:07
Around. The one unit comes in, the heat’s gonna have a problem, gonna
00:16:39:07 –> 00:16:56:25
Have a bunch of rounds and it’s gonna be bad. But, but he knew a ram like this can pretty much command whatever authority he wants when a you like that comes in. Yeah. He’ll walk in and he’ll crush the little rams and say, just get outta my way. Yeah. But he knew those yous. He’d either bred ’em, he knows he’s been around them or else he just, nothing, nothing happening
00:16:56:25 –> 00:16:57:11
Here. So he,
00:16:57:14 –> 00:17:04:20
He upped and left, remember? Yeah. He, he, he, you know, and they, and he, all of a sudden he comes, came to us side hill and around right above a skyline,
00:17:04:23 –> 00:17:06:08
230 yards sold
00:17:06:17 –> 00:17:09:26
You’re through fifteens on a tripod skyline and just,
00:17:09:28 –> 00:17:11:13
And I’m on the scope 25
00:17:11:14 –> 00:17:11:24
Power
00:17:11:24 –> 00:17:13:24
And I just said no 18 power on that
00:17:13:24 –> 00:17:17:25
One. He looked big, big, big right there. Well, but he’s head on too. And
00:17:17:25 –> 00:17:32:20
I didn’t, but, and I didn’t hear that from you. Now it might be in the video. I didn’t hear big, big, big. What I heard was, I don’t know, Jason, what do you think? No. Kinda like, we both gotta decide. And I’m looking through the scope and I’m like, he’s a half curl. Yeah. I’m shooting a half curl.
00:17:33:29 –> 00:18:03:08
That’s, I mean, you initially, all the bad things go through my mind. Yeah. Is if he’s, if his bases aren’t what we think they are. And his, and I’m shooting a half curl ram, I’m shooting a dink, and he’s not standing next to all the other rams. He had been right there. Now when I videoed him the first time, and I, and I showed the video to Adam, I’m like this dark ring ram. He’s the one that stood out. He’s the one that stood out. And Adam’s like, yes, but it’s hard. He’s four miles away. And then he is two miles away as I got closer and closer and, but now he’s by himself standing there staring at you at two and he walks
00:18:03:08 –> 00:18:03:14
Around
00:18:04:04 –> 00:18:04:18
And we’re
00:18:04:18 –> 00:18:04:25
Looking up
00:18:05:06 –> 00:18:10:06
Yeah. You didn’t watch him with the other Rams. You just watch a ram, walk around a corner and trust him that
00:18:10:09 –> 00:18:29:14
Yeah, that’s where I want, that’s the right ram. And then, and Adam says, as long as, and, and I’m to the point, as long as it’s the right ram, he’s dying. Well I, and, and maybe subconsciously I heard Adam say, I don’t know, but, but about the time Adam says that’s our rim, he noticed that big dark ring. I guess my safety went off.
00:18:30:06 –> 00:18:45:07
I said something I have to watch again. But when I said I heard the safety go off and I’m like, it’s about to happen. And then I don’t, what did I say next, Chris? Because I said, oh yeah. I said, yeah, but we got, we got plenty of time. He’s not going anywhere. Yeah. Boom. And my ears blew
00:18:45:07 –> 00:19:08:18
Up. And I feel terrible because let’s just, I’m gonna be honest, I, I hate surprises and I hate blowing out somebody’s ears. And I’ve had it blown out on me a lot and I don’t like it. And so when Adam’s like, dude, I wasn’t even ready. I’m like, I’m sorry, I thought, I thought you knew we’re killing this sheep. He’s staring at me broadside. He made a death march to us. He’s looking for, he’s gonna go
00:19:08:18 –> 00:19:09:17
For looking for the other sheep.
00:19:09:22 –> 00:19:30:25
We had to get. Well I’m contorted into these rocks. I’ve got a dead rest right now. But if he moves, I gotta reset up. Deal with all the cactus. There’s 14 species of cactus around us. Yeah. And, and then we got a, and bottom line is he’s broadside 230 yards. If he’s the right ram, we’re smoking him. And so I smoked him and I got, and I stood up and I’m like, Bronson, would you kill him if it was your tag?
00:19:31:29 –> 00:19:49:29
Absolute. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, okay. That was like the dumb, that was the worst question I heard all week down there because we were there to kill him. ’cause the night before, I think I said that to you and, you know, we’d compared him against again. I got to see him the night before with a bunch of other rams and watch him specifically from all the angles. And it was like two, he
00:19:49:29 –> 00:19:54:05
Pretty big, but we still out him, you gotta admit we never put a score on that ram. No. Because
00:19:54:13 –> 00:19:55:23
We knew he was big. Yeah. We knew
00:19:55:23 –> 00:19:59:01
He was good enough. He was low. Seventies is the only thing we knew basically.
00:19:59:06 –> 00:20:13:07
Well at least we it all, we we hadn’t seen him at u under two miles. I know. Either of us. I know, I know. For until we saw him at 235 yards. And then you got fifteens, you’re like, what’s the ram and what’s the magnification doing to this ram?
00:20:13:22 –> 00:20:21:24
It goes, goes back to shoot me, me blowing up, blowing up little deer thinking they’re giant. ’cause you got ’em at a hundred yards looking at s with tens or fifteens.
00:20:21:26 –> 00:20:31:22
Yeah. So, but anyway, we, so we hoot and hollered. It was done. He went right down and Chris got great video of it. It was awesome. So we’ll put, put that together on our YouTube channel here. But then
00:20:31:22 –> 00:20:32:16
We walk up to the ram
00:20:32:26 –> 00:20:42:22
And actually didn’t even get to the ram. You remember he died with his face down. So Yeah. And I, and remember we watched him for a bit, make sure he is not getting up and he didn’t, obviously I’m shooting
00:20:42:23 –> 00:20:43:29
My Red Rock is one shot
00:20:43:29 –> 00:20:58:11
You Yeah, we got up, we got up that shoot and crested and you could see him. You, you could see him from, well you could see 30 yards or something like that. Yeah. And his basses are down. And I just, I knew right then. ’cause I’ve seen that look a lot. And usually that’s,
00:20:59:13 –> 00:21:00:22
You know, whether you’re happy or
00:21:00:22 –> 00:21:07:26
Sad. Yeah. Right. Then I’m like, oh my gosh. Because at 30 yards, I, you know, I just hadn’t seen that. I hadn’t seen what I saw. No. In my life.
00:21:08:16 –> 00:21:08:23
In
00:21:08:23 –> 00:21:18:28
Your life. And then, oh, well, yeah, Rocky. So Oh yeah, I’ve been killed. A 17 2 8 space. Rocky, no, no. So, and that’s Montana stuff. And
00:21:18:28 –> 00:21:21:08
I’m like, what is, define this for me, Adam. Like what do you mean?
00:21:21:20 –> 00:21:55:02
Oh my gosh. So then we, and I’m like, look, he’s giant. I says he’s at 30 yards. I’m like, he’s, his bases are, and then bigger than we thought. And then I got up there and I, I just have a way of my index finger and my thumbs when I put it around, I, I usually walk up and put it around bases of sheet porn. And they’re almost very close to 15. I’ve never actually measured it. If, if my index finger and thumbs around, I do that. They’re very close to 15. Like, might be within an eighth or two. But that’s my barometer. If I can’t touch, I know he’s over 15 and killed. I knew he was gonna be over 15
00:21:55:02 –> 00:21:56:11
And he killed 16 base. She Utah. Yeah.
00:21:56:11 –> 00:22:05:19
We killed we killed two another desert this year. 16 and two. 16 and three last year. Some rocky. So I mean, I, I just know, all right, this thing’s an inch plus. So we got 16 plus.
00:22:05:20 –> 00:22:07:20
So you did that and it was, I did it, it was over
00:22:07:22 –> 00:22:14:18
Two inches, Steven. I didn’t even, I didn’t even complete it. And I, and I walked away and I’m like, oh my God. And you’re like, what? And I’m like,
00:22:15:06 –> 00:22:17:29
Well, I know he’s big. Yeah. I mean, I’ve killed sheep and, and,
00:22:18:21 –> 00:22:35:25
But I, I tried to do that just as a, and I just, I threw my hands in the air because he, I knew he was a minimum of an inch bigger or bigger, more than we thought. It was bigger. He’s an inch bigger than I thought we thought. In my mind, I’m thinking he might go 16 plus, which if he’s 16 plus he’s high seventies all day long. Well,
00:22:35:25 –> 00:22:36:19
He’s 16 plus he
00:22:36:19 –> 00:22:38:17
Is, he’s high seventies all day long. Long. It really,
00:22:38:17 –> 00:22:48:05
There hadn’t been a 16 killed in the unit. Yeah. So we’re thinking that’s exceptional. Again, goes back to, it goes back on paper like when, when you haven’t killed a 16, you kind of subconsciously think it’s
00:22:48:05 –> 00:22:49:25
Not possible. That’s the limit. You’re like’s the, that’s the
00:22:49:25 –> 00:22:50:12
Limit. It’s
00:22:50:12 –> 00:23:08:02
Not possible. Well and I knew he’s gotta be heavier than anything. So you throw in your mind 16. Well, and the biggest has been 15 and a half ever. Yeah. So that’s already taken it up a notch. Yeah. And so, and I’m never gonna throw out 17 plus. Yeah. Anybody, if you’re hunting Montana and Missouri breaks, you’re looking for 17 plus
00:23:08:02 –> 00:23:10:22
Base and you see that and you see that. But not a lot of them. Yeah. Yeah. But, but a two, two or
00:23:10:22 –> 00:23:29:16
Three. But that’s what makes a ram special. That’s 45 inches and 17 plus or something. That’s your special round. Yeah. You know, anyway, long story short backed away. And I said, what? And I says, I went back and touched the horn. I says, my fingers are 15 inches. There’s at least two inches of gap right there. That’s right. That’s right. I says, this is, that’s is a freaking monster.
00:23:29:18 –> 00:23:30:23
This is a monster. This
00:23:30:23 –> 00:23:31:24
Is a real deal. And
00:23:31:24 –> 00:23:32:24
Then we started, so whether he is
00:23:32:24 –> 00:23:34:02
Your look or not, you killed
00:23:34:05 –> 00:23:46:05
And he wasn’t, he’s not my look. But, but, and that’s what another, my brother-in-law, of course they like to bust my chops, but he’s like, dude, your ram’s ugly. But he’s like, I’d take big over ugly.
00:23:48:05 –> 00:23:48:13
He’s
00:23:48:26 –> 00:23:49:02
Big.
00:23:50:01 –> 00:24:13:02
He is awesome. And so, yeah, just really fortunate, he ended up over 17 and then, you know, the checkout, the G gal was super tight on him. Of course she’s scared she’s doing it wrong and whatnot. And so anyway, they did end up getting a 180 3 and some change. And then 180 1 and change net net. If he does net that, that would be the number one Nelson I taken in the state of Arizona.
00:24:13:05 –> 00:24:19:28
Yeah. He did have a chip out and, and that and he would’ve netted, you know, it was six eight inch mission. So he would’ve been gross
00:24:20:00 –> 00:24:20:17
A little more net,
00:24:20:22 –> 00:24:43:23
An inch and a half higher. He would’ve net 180 3 plus with, without that. But regardless, regardless phenomenal ram. It was, it was awesome. Lot of hoop and holler late night. And it was just, the only unfortunate thing is Jason, Chris and I went up to Chris Def video and Jason and I just to, you know, he can’t have six guys stocking a big herd of sheep to, and the only unfortunate thing is everybody else, you know, couldn’t be
00:24:43:23 –> 00:24:44:10
In the shell photos.
00:24:44:28 –> 00:24:45:11
John’s
00:24:45:12 –> 00:24:46:04
Fricking two or three hour
00:24:46:04 –> 00:25:00:16
Hike. Sam and Jared and everybody white. Everybody that was there was yeah, two and a half, two miles away. And with the amount of daylight left, if we’d have had to wait for them to get there for pitchers, it’d have been right at dark. And then it’s, it’s a bad hike out in the dark.
00:25:00:23 –> 00:25:01:23
It’s kind of in the middle of the, in the
00:25:01:23 –> 00:25:03:29
Cactus too. You’re gonna end up with stuff stuck in your,
00:25:04:03 –> 00:25:07:23
And you guys were already hiked in far. Everybody’s just like, yeah, you guys were just like,
00:25:07:23 –> 00:25:19:16
The riding was on the wall. Unfortunately. So we just, they made the call, we’ll we’ll go get camp. Which Jeff, that dinner that night was incredible. It was gave had five hours. He had five hours. Like,
00:25:19:16 –> 00:25:21:06
Like I ate a whole chicken. Chicken. Oh I get,
00:25:22:09 –> 00:25:30:25
We had the camp chef pellet grills cruising back at camp, smoke, crank, spilling. And we ate like king’s all week Jeff. But that was awesome. We
00:25:30:25 –> 00:25:42:10
Were set up, you know, we’re set, we go down there, we’re set up for days. ’cause let’s face it, Jason’s got a tag. He ain’t gonna kill the first rammy seas. Like we’re gonna be grinding out, you know, we’re gonna kill a giant.
00:25:42:14 –> 00:25:44:08
But you guys didn’t know how serious we were.
00:25:44:20 –> 00:25:45:08
But, but
00:25:45:10 –> 00:25:49:13
Man, Adam and I got done food for week when we got done scouting. We’re like, that’s this is gonna happen tomorrow.
00:25:49:16 –> 00:25:51:25
It was, it was evident of that Friday night. Yeah.
00:25:52:11 –> 00:25:55:22
Of you guys roll in Friday night. And it was awesome. It was just fun.
00:25:55:22 –> 00:26:02:01
One of the fun things about, we weren’t there, but we had a different angle and we, we watched that ram for seven hours. Yeah.
00:26:03:03 –> 00:26:05:16
Was, you guys could see him all day. Pretty cool. And
00:26:05:17 –> 00:26:07:04
And he was standout above the other
00:26:07:09 –> 00:26:07:23
Rams. Yeah.
00:26:07:26 –> 00:26:29:12
The, the number of times. ’cause we were looking for the ring and you could see it and then he’d turn, you’re like, maybe I didn’t see it. You know, it would kind of, it was just far enough away. Like it was a mile and a half, two miles. Yeah. Yeah. And so we, you know, back and forth. But we kept going the number of times we said, that is a phenomenal ram. Yeah. You know, and if that’s not the ram, Jason should look at that ram. Well
00:26:29:12 –> 00:26:56:04
And the, the dark green, that chip that we alluded to on the right around the four ring, it had a bunch of damage in the back and that crack just must had enough moisture going down that ring. It just started cracking and out onto the face of the horn. And the other side didn’t even even match It didn’t have that dark, but it did on that side and, and kind of was kind of standout. And when we finally, when he was looking at his head on at 2 35 when he finally did turn, I could see that. And I said, gotta be him, pound him or something like that. I didn’t.
00:26:56:08 –> 00:27:01:20
And I don’t know, I didn’t even hear that. I don’t know what I heard. All I, I know he died. He died.
00:27:02:08 –> 00:27:03:18
Yeah. It was, it was awesome.
00:27:03:26 –> 00:27:13:22
So then Adam Adam’s got a really good client, kind of turned into a friend that drew a tag and we kind of had this planned out well that we would go from one hunt to the next hunt. Yeah.
00:27:13:22 –> 00:27:31:00
Just had a, had a gentleman that, you know what oftens a case you have a lot of clients or potential clients call you over theirs on whether it be Utah or Nevada. In this case it was Arizona. Just to, hey, where where do I need to be putting in? I need a desert sheep for my full curl FENOs, grand slam, whatever. And
00:27:32:01 –> 00:27:32:16
I need four
00:27:32:16 –> 00:28:26:10
Sheep. I need my fourth sheep from North American variety subspecies. You know, and you know it’s 75 and then now 79, you know, you’re gonna try to pick nine old pick units that are gonna hopefully match that. Well and, and some of these people you hear back from and most you talk to once a year and you don’t hear from, ’cause the sheep odds are one hundreds, you know, he, this gentleman John had one under the true max. He even took the hunter ed he told me back in the mid nineties. He took for a week, took a week vacation to go, he didn’t have a hunter ed card from Pennsylvania. So he had to go to Arizona and at that time took their course for a week. So he went out and he took that, but he missed a year somehow he doesn’t remember how, so he wasn’t in the true max point pool. And so you’re still, you’re just doing what you can to guide him in terms of, you know, anyway, pick a unit’s, got good sheep numbers not brutally difficult. Again it was
00:28:26:11 –> 00:28:27:07
A perfect match for him
00:28:27:08 –> 00:28:49:02
Anyway, he drew a tag and so, you know, he’s not one of these guys that, you know, gets his results on the portals and all. It doesn’t even have a portal. You know. So I remember had to call and get his results for him over the, the 6 0 2 number. You’re like, you won’t believe it. And I had to call three times. Yes. ’cause it’s one of those you were drawn or successful for whatever, Bighorn sheep. And I’m just like what this is, that’s
00:28:49:02 –> 00:28:50:08
Two of the 10 between him and I.
00:28:50:17 –> 00:29:02:20
Yeah. Well we drew some other license app guys too that we’ll talk about later in 44 B North. And so anyway, some others, but long story short made the call. He’s ecstatic. He’s 79 and and
00:29:02:20 –> 00:29:03:26
Adam you’re taking me,
00:29:04:01 –> 00:30:03:17
Well he had told me that from the start, but once again, like he had max points in Nevada, which he still does and, and you know, so yeah, maybe it works into something. But regardless, that’s kind of what we do here at Epic Outdoors. You talk to people about their hunting plans and this guy was very specific. He had dropped all of his applications was only putting in for desert sheep in Arizona and Nevada. ’cause he had so many points. That’s all he is wanting to do. And, and he drew it. So when he drew that, you know, I don’t normally guide down there, but if that one Jason Drew, he’s basically on the neighboring unit, probably can pull this off and it’s gonna be a really good feel good story. And he’s so let’s do it. So while I was down scouting Nevada in the summer, went and got the license, took the test, got the B l m permits all squared away. For those of you listening that wondering, we’re just running this under the radar. We weren’t so it’s all legit. So anyway, so we basically just decided to set him up for coming, coming for four or five days into Jason Hunt, hoping that we’d have Jason and a Ramad. Well we had that Well
00:30:03:17 –> 00:30:07:14
And Adam was like, when should I have this guy fly in? And I’m like, we’ll be done by the fourth.
00:30:07:26 –> 00:30:43:25
I know. So we picked like the fourth and, and ended up being, we should have had him, they’re almost did not even book his flight and just call him and say book get here. Probably. But regardless of that, showed up and had a bunch of the guys, Brad Trager, Jason Gear, Jeff, Chris, we, we had fun. We we, that’s a good time. We learned that unit for a few days. I mean I was there the week before and found some rams and, and we, we spent some time, you know, just enjoying it. Jason’s got over and done with quick. We had a lot of food. My trailer didn’t even hardly get touched because Jeff’s like, I got stuff unthought. We gotta cook this. We, my wife, we got cooked this, we
00:30:43:25 –> 00:30:51:24
In Costco and we, we freaking emptied Costco. Yes. You got, we were loading. You got, you got the Epic crew and with just, just the peanut butter sandwiches alone. Yeah,
00:30:52:09 –> 00:30:54:00
The loaves of bread. You Yeah,
00:30:54:00 –> 00:30:54:25
It’s a significant
00:30:55:00 –> 00:30:55:10
Amount of food.
00:30:55:28 –> 00:30:57:08
10 guys let alone, let alone it’s a big
00:30:57:08 –> 00:31:09:08
Deal alone. Yeah. You go five days into your hunt, we would’ve put a dent into it. But my stuff stayed in my freezer. ’cause Jeff kept telling me, I got stuff unthought I gotta eat. I got this unthought I got, we gotta eat, you know, and Jeff, we’d look to Jeff as our cook. We’re capable of cooking.
00:31:09:19 –> 00:31:12:16
Jeff is good, is the cook. But he’s fodder
00:31:12:21 –> 00:31:19:13
When he does his magic. It’s pretty good. And you get done at five 30 or six at night. It’s, you’ve got plenty of time to cook a good dinner.
00:31:19:13 –> 00:31:39:01
The nights are long. You know, that’s the thing is this time of year there’s, there’s plenty of time to sit around and bss and, and do your thing and have a good dinner. You know, there’s just, it, it’s, it is nice that, that sheep putting in Arizona. It’s nice that, you know, it was comfortable. Oh like it wasn’t super cold, it was just, that was a excellent hunt. Yeah. Excellent.
00:31:39:17 –> 00:31:52:05
Well so in time came that John was gonna fly in. So we had, I dunno O obviously John, his only criteria was just Adam, I’m coming, I need to finish my grand slam, but I don’t want a sickle horn. Don’t want a
00:31:52:07 –> 00:31:57:20
Horn. So right when he got here, I was like, Adam says you’ll even shoot a sickle horn. You should have signal,
00:31:58:03 –> 00:32:27:20
You should have seen the look on his face. ’cause he had told me five times, that’s the only thing you didn’t want to shoot. And he looked at Jason and then Jason laughed and he and John got it. But John’s a great guy. He is from Pittsburgh. And anyway, we, I, you know, I had to stop shoot his gun and you know, I, I shoot a Red Rock precision and you know, a lot of folks, this is not a knock against him, but on the east eastern us long range guns are, you don’t need ’em. You can’t see far enough to shoot ’em. And and some states it’s a waste
00:32:27:23 –> 00:32:28:12
Of money. Some in all
00:32:28:17 –> 00:33:11:26
Honesty. Yeah. And some states states you can’t even use center fire rifles for your white toe hunts. Parts of New York and Iowa. I mean you’re using muzzle loaders and shotguns or bows. I mean there’s, I’ve had clients not even own, you know, you can’t even have a muzzle break on the end of a center fire and ports in New York because that’s viewed as some kind of a modification. I don’t know I’ve had that. So just tell him, bring just come out use mine. Well John, you know what, 79 and knowing kind of a neat backstory killed his first doll in 19 66, 52 years ago. He started his, his grand slam. And so I’m always sensitive, everybody kind of wants to use your own gun and I didn’t know if he had one gun he’d used for all of his sheep. And that’s natural if you do you wanna finish it kinda like his hat?
00:33:11:29 –> 00:33:12:07
Yeah.
00:33:12:15 –> 00:33:15:13
He brings a hat that he’s worn for 42 years as one of
00:33:15:13 –> 00:33:16:19
Those a cause red hats, you
00:33:16:19 –> 00:33:18:26
Know, hat that fold, the ear flaps fold up and
00:33:19:07 –> 00:33:19:23
Bright red.
00:33:19:27 –> 00:33:23:00
It was bright and until reflective red hat. Yeah it was, it was bright.
00:33:23:03 –> 00:33:24:13
It was like, it was like a shiny leather
00:33:24:16 –> 00:33:36:14
And you know, we were hidden most of the time. And, and if it ever became an issue I would’ve had him, he, he would take it off. But he said, I don’t wear this lucky. I gave him one of my hats. He says, no offense, but I’m gonna wear my lucky hat today. And I’m like, okay, whatever.
00:33:36:17 –> 00:33:37:24
Okay. Do you notice it’s red?
00:33:38:11 –> 00:33:38:24
That’s
00:33:38:24 –> 00:33:40:02
Right. That might be a problem.
00:33:40:10 –> 00:33:44:06
But we stopped and shot his gun and stopped and shot mine. You know, after we
00:33:44:06 –> 00:33:50:22
Left the Vegas airport and we actually, yeah, we actually were on a specific target ram you had found the first time you were down there scout, it
00:33:50:22 –> 00:34:37:16
Was about 10 days earlier. And, but we found other big rams. We even found other good rams and we knew it’d be good for him, but this ram was a little bit cut above. We had to shoot, you might gonna, you’re probably gonna shoot three to 500 yards. It was riding on the wall. They’re not six with the standard scope you’re holding over. And so, and John fortunately said, no, I’m not tied to the gun. My other gun I’ve used everything with I, I, you know, had to leave behind ’cause something went wrong with it. So this is a new gun anyway. And I said, okay, well let’s shoot my gun if you shoot it well we’re good. He lit it, did it, liked it. It was Red Rock Precision seven mm. So that’s what we took a field the next day. And I guess fast forward a little bit, John is in great shape. He’s told us that for 20 years, since he’s been retired, basically since he was 60 years old. He works out Monday through Friday for an hour and a half to two hours at the gym every day for 20 years. Oh.
00:34:37:16 –> 00:34:43:23
He laid it lit into me bench push pushups right off the bat. And I’m like, he’s like, do you know what these kind of pushups are? And he said some name and I’m like, on his
00:34:43:23 –> 00:34:45:22
First two knuckles. Right. And then does yeah, first two
00:34:45:22 –> 00:34:58:22
Knuckles and then there’re like goes down five steps down, five steps up, you know, and I’m like, he’s challenging push. Dunno what those are. And he goes, Jason, you don’t know what those are. And I’m like, well why don’t you show me? He freaking lays out on Adam’s camp trailer doing his on
00:34:58:23 –> 00:35:02:02
A hard linoleum floor with his knuckles on the ground and just starts cranking ’em out.
00:35:03:13 –> 00:35:07:16
And he is like, now you and Adam need to do ’em. I said, no, I’m gonna be tired for tomorrow.
00:35:09:25 –> 00:35:59:28
But great attitude and great health fortunately. And, and that was awesome. One thing we kept kept telling John is, hey, we’re, I hope we’re alive at 79, let alone hunting desert sheep or any sheep’s. And maybe just to fast forward through a little bit, when the time came, we got, got on on the, he ended up taking, we had the other ram found, but it just ended up putting a slip on us kind of in a much tougher location and got away from us and had went, went to the next ram in, in line so to speak, that we had found. And he made a great shot, proned him out on the pack 508 or nine yards and a one shot kill. And he was beside himself because he didn’t, I didn’t even tell him how far he was shooting. And, and I find even with my kids, you tell him, you tell people that and they start, it changes Melody like, oh I’ve never shot that bar before. Whoa.
00:36:00:02 –> 00:36:01:01
I can’t do it at all. Whoa.
00:36:01:08 –> 00:36:12:07
Yes, I’ve had that. So I just, I don’t, and you know, and if they knew how to look at my turret, they’d look right up and see it five on the five and know that was 500. But they don’t know what that means. So he was prod
00:36:12:07 –> 00:36:13:07
Out that says it’s on the eight.
00:36:14:20 –> 00:36:14:29
Yeah.
00:36:15:21 –> 00:36:17:20
Yeah, he’s 250. John take him.
00:36:18:16 –> 00:36:38:16
You know, but you know, he, I, he got him in the scope. He was with another ramp. So once they separated I said, stay on him. I dialed the power up. And he said, oh I like that right there about 15 power. It didn’t go all the way to 20. Yeah. And he center punched him and it was over. And then I told him how far? And he went crazy. He said, I can’t wait to tell my buddies at home. They’ll die. Well
00:36:38:22 –> 00:36:40:19
Six shoots that far. That’s
00:36:40:19 –> 00:36:54:00
Right. Well he did tell me that was gonna be 60 to 65 inches low at that range or something. He knew, which, who knows, he knew, you know, that’s five and a half feet. But long story short, fun hunt to kind of end that, that weekend, weekend in Arizona. It was fun. It was
00:36:54:00 –> 00:36:54:17
Fun to watch it too.
00:36:54:21 –> 00:37:55:19
Really, really fun. Drew the tag, finished it off and you know, 79 years old, obviously very deserving. Somebody waits that long. He’d been applying longer than, than Max, but again, missed the one year. So was one year behind in the chase. But it was, it was a fun time. It was a great, great basically seven days in Arizona, you know, in between those two hunts. So had a great time. Killed him a great ram, got the ram taken care of, loaded him up. I guess we’ll give a shout out to Q. You love the q u packs. You know, I personally, for most of my sheep hunts that aren’t backpack, backpack hunts, I use the, the icon pro, the 5,200. I have a 7,200 when I’m actually going backpacking with all my gear with me and staying overnight, but worked flawlessly. Obviously carry all the gear big enough to have everything. And you know, these later season hunts, I mean I was surprised on that hunt. It was, it was cold. I had a lot more gear and clothes and layers on this hunt than I anticipated having that week in Arizona. You think you’re going to Arizona, you think of spring training and baseball and that wasn’t what we had.
00:37:55:26 –> 00:38:07:01
No, it was, it was a little bit cooler. But I, I’ve been running that 7,200 all season. I started You should see that poor thing. I mean I started in bear season of course. So I’m packing bear bait ba. Oh
00:38:07:11 –> 00:38:08:14
That bear season’s hilarious.
00:38:08:14 –> 00:38:09:14
That poor, that poor
00:38:09:18 –> 00:38:12:00
Pack, that thing packed a lot of dog food. Let’s just
00:38:12:00 –> 00:38:23:08
Say that. Dog food grease, you name it. I mean it looks like it’s a few years older than it probably should be. Yeah, but I mean, you think, I mean that pack’s packed out. You know, I’ll help pack out John’s sheeps, several other sheep
00:38:23:08 –> 00:38:26:00
This year. You have three Rockies with me this year over there. Three Rockies
00:38:26:00 –> 00:38:31:25
With you, Matt Deer, Matt’s elk, three a few deer. You got a phone car?
00:38:32:08 –> 00:38:33:17
You got a phone, phone call Pat.
00:38:34:06 –> 00:38:34:25
I mean it’s, it’s
00:38:35:02 –> 00:38:37:29
Anybody out there you need something packed out, Jeff?
00:38:38:10 –> 00:38:42:26
Jeff’s got a se it’s almost a curse to have a 7,200 pack on standby. Oh
00:38:43:00 –> 00:38:56:25
I know. Well I remember I was sitting on the hill, I killed my deer. Ja you know, me and Jason in Idaho, me and Jason are there and Jason’s like, Jason’s like I just talked to Adam. He asked me what pack he got and I told him you had the 7,200. He says, oh he can fit it in there, tell him to pack it out.
00:38:58:02 –> 00:39:13:12
And that’s true. And I’m like, and hey, I can make it there, but you’re gonna be back to the trailhead. Yeah man up freaking put that deer in that pack and come on out. And he did, he manned up and it fricking was down at the trailhead. But my kids have that 7,200 you’re talking about. And and it’s awesome ’cause it, it can, it
00:39:13:12 –> 00:39:14:01
Is his big it
00:39:14:06 –> 00:39:20:04
Down. It’s, it’ll suck up to a day pack but then it expands when they need it to, you know, go on overnight trip or something like that. So,
00:39:20:10 –> 00:39:37:11
But anyway. Works good. Awesome packs. Appreciate the guys at KU for supporting us Epic outdoors as well. Check ’em out. You can only buy their [email protected]. Ku iu.com. There’s no retailers, no markup. Just buy ’em direct ku.com. So what
00:39:37:11 –> 00:39:38:18
Else are we gonna talk about Bronson?
00:39:40:14 –> 00:39:45:07
We’re almost done. And that’s depressing. The hunting season’s about over. Oh you got,
00:39:45:07 –> 00:39:46:00
You got a, we
00:39:46:00 –> 00:40:13:29
Got, we got a couple, another sheep hunt and deer hunt coming up in Arizona here in a couple of weeks with my son and, but you know, for the most part we’re it’s desk time and we’ll probably be able to crank with podcast or two out a week. Get back to that normal schedule. So we appreciate everybody’s been bombarding Chris and everybody else about get, keep ’em coming faster, faster. Well we’re, we’re not together much. This is the first time the five of us have been in here and I don’t know how long, long time together. Long time. Yeah,
00:40:14:18 –> 00:41:07:19
Long time. We’re in that time of year. We’re co we’re gonna be pumping out a monthly magazine cover all the Western states before it’s time to apply and get you all that information and start applying guys. And so anybody out there that’s, that’s wanting to, you know, start the application process or maybe you’ve been doing it on your own or had another company doing it or whatever, if you’d like to visit with us, we’d sure like to visit with you and kind of go over your application strategy and, and see if there’s something we could help you with. So anyway, we also, yeah, we wanna thank Red Rock again. We’ve talked a lot about ’em. They’re responsible for the death of a couple more rams and who knows how many Rams Red Rock guns have taken, but it’s, it’s many min. Many, many. And anyway it’s been awesome. You can get ahold of Red Rock, you can go to www.redrockprecision.com or you can give ’em a holler at 8 0 1 4 2 5 6 5 7 4.
00:41:08:18 –> 00:41:46:12
Well, another thing we talked about, we alluded to the YouTube episode that will be coming up here probably on Jason’s hunt. Maybe we’ll throw a little bit of teaser stuff about John’s because we got great footage. We had a lot of guys going, everybody had their phone scopes rolling on, on both hunts. And so we got a lot of great footage of live sheep and kill shots of these sheep from a couple different angles. So appreciate the phone scope guys. Everybody in our crew had the best of the best for their phones. Even Jeff, he got a brand new iPhone, so yes, he had the new set up and he’s got 128 gigs and he’s cranking video. Oh man. Filling it up. So
00:41:46:29 –> 00:41:51:19
Adam probably knows, these guys know I was milking that last time out on that old iPhone. So
00:41:51:25 –> 00:41:57:06
Not like you do tires get the last 500
00:41:57:08 –> 00:42:04:05
Miles or the last, or get the last 30 seconds of video he can before it’s full or the last 200 miles on the tires. There’s
00:42:04:05 –> 00:42:14:16
A wolf flee in somewhere in southern Nevada right now laughing his butt off at this, at this, that, that comment right there. They, they have officially dubbed it, you know, and I had a little Jeff John on with
00:42:14:16 –> 00:42:17:01
My, well I had little Jeff Chong experience, say my tire. You had have two or three flats.
00:42:17:04 –> 00:42:18:19
Yes, I had two or three flats.
00:42:18:26 –> 00:42:31:02
That’s a whole nother story with Matt. He had freaking three flats off his, you know, on his little Tacoma there on that Nevada elk kind of helped him with. So that’s another thing I, you know, a lot of guys will be like, geez, Jason didn’t Oh, that’s
00:42:31:02 –> 00:42:31:19
Part of the reason.
00:42:31:26 –> 00:42:34:11
Didn’t spend all the time, you know, out scouting. Well I, that
00:42:34:11 –> 00:42:37:08
Was over Thanksgiving. Yeah, the day before Thanksgiving that hunt opened, didn’t it?
00:42:37:08 –> 00:43:06:12
Yeah. And in Nevada and yeah, Matt Wolfley had a laid elk hunt and, and of course I committed to help him and it’s just one of those things that you’re trying to do a little everything and you, and you wanna be everywhere and you can’t be. And so I did spend a lot of time, you know, out there helping him and of course he killed a great bull. And, and then when I finally made it down to scout sheep, you know, it’s just a little bit close to the hunt. And of course it was making me nervous, but didn’t turn out so bad. So same thing with Adam. He wanted to go down earlier, but we’re just doing
00:43:06:12 –> 00:43:08:14
All you can do for everybody trying to be
00:43:08:14 –> 00:43:11:16
State to state. Yeah, state to state. So anyway,
00:43:11:16 –> 00:43:12:22
And trying to stay married, I mean,
00:43:13:04 –> 00:43:16:02
Trying to, trying to keep your tires inflated and stay married.
00:43:16:11 –> 00:43:18:26
Yes. That’s, it’s all true.
00:43:19:07 –> 00:44:02:08
So anyway, yeah, that’s about it. You know, wanna thank Outdoor Edge. They’re a great partner of ours, of course. We use their knives and, and razor blades and whatnot to take care of our sheep. And, and they’re just awesome. They’re actually a knife that’s got stability. In fact, Jenna was cutting up, this is another kind of funny thing. So I kill the sheep, I bring home, Adam’s down there scouting. He’s, he’s scouting, he’s gonna finish scouting for John. And I’m, I’m take a half a day, run up here, course a a night, wake up early in the morning, go back down and help finish scouting and, and get ready for John. And took the meat to Jan. Well, to take to the butchers. An hour and a half, right? It’s an hour and a half each way. Three
00:44:02:08 –> 00:44:05:28
Hours. They’re pretty small too. I mean, so yeah, she’s thinking I’ll just take care
00:44:05:28 –> 00:44:13:19
Of this night. It’s pretty small. Yeah. So she’s like, actually FaceTiming, she’s over there with one of my quarters of sheep with a knife in one hand. I’m like, that’s pretty sexy right there.
00:44:14:22 –> 00:44:17:00
So, so
00:44:17:09 –> 00:44:22:14
That’s why I’m married. You right. That’s how it is in their family. She’s barefoot and cutting meat. So, anyway,
00:44:24:21 –> 00:45:09:14
So, ah, she’s awesome. It’s your dream, bro. She’s awesome. Yep, she is. Yeah. Nevertheless. So she’s over there and pretty soon I get a, I get a text, my knives suck. My knives suck. And I’m like, she’s like, finally. So she incorporated the kids, got Sean in there, and Sean’s like, mom, these knives suck. And she goes, yeah. And he, she, he’s like, I’m going down and getting my outdoor edge knife. He went down there, got the outdoor edge knife, a new razor plate, and she’s like, it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. I said, well, did you go to the office and grab another epic knife? She’s like, oh yeah. And she’s like, it was, I mean, after saw through meat finally went down. I said, well, every one of our households should have a few of those if we’re gonna cut up sheep meat. So anyway, a little shout out to Outdoor Edge, making my life a little better because
00:45:09:25 –> 00:45:10:02
Absolutely.
00:45:10:11 –> 00:45:11:09
And we
00:45:11:09 –> 00:45:16:20
Ought to mention there’s a way to get a, an outdoor edge, epic outdoors custom knife. Are
00:45:16:20 –> 00:45:17:17
We giving those away now? How’s
00:45:17:17 –> 00:45:31:03
That, John? We’re giving those away. So also this dovetails into, you think you’re never gonna draw a sheep tag, you ought to be putting in for any sheep drawings. You can, we’re, we’ve gotta a giveaway that we just launched. And so you can buy tickets for as low as $25
00:45:31:18 –> 00:45:34:14
Or just renew. Look at it. Renew or join our service.
00:45:34:28 –> 00:45:49:23
So there’s there as well. One the stone sheep that’s right is tickets. You, you can buy tickets for or refer a buddy and the doll sheep, the only way you can get in that is to join our service. So if you join, then you got a free, then you got a free entry join or renew. And
00:45:50:04 –> 00:46:05:22
Our December magazine might just point out, has a great story from Terry Horner or for his Alaska Doll Sheep we gave away maybe 18 months or two years ago. I’m not sure. With Ultima two, the outfitters where I went, he had a great story of his hunt and just a,
00:46:06:05 –> 00:46:09:04
Now Terry was the guy that was in the backhoe. He was in a loader. He
00:46:09:04 –> 00:46:11:22
Was in a loader or something when we called him. Yes. And he’s
00:46:11:22 –> 00:46:13:25
Like, everybody’s staring at me wondering why I’m noting,
00:46:13:25 –> 00:46:23:17
Yeah. All of a sudden the gravel quit dumping and everybody that’s per the assembly line was backed up. And he’s freaking out and he’s going, he’s going, we might be embellishing a little bit, but he,
00:46:23:23 –> 00:46:24:17
No, it’s pretty close.
00:46:25:12 –> 00:46:46:19
Anyway, so yeah, I mean I, you know, just working dude, doesn’t matter who wins, everybody’s eligible. And we love, we love doing those things. We love to say, you know, thanks to everybody for being members of ours, that’s, you know, that we pay full price for those hunts. It’s not like we just get some discount cut rate hunt and give it away. These are with people we want to go with. And in many cases we have been, in case of
00:46:46:19 –> 00:46:46:22
These,
00:46:46:22 –> 00:47:12:21
When Adam and I, yeah, when Adam and I secure these hunts, we look at what we would do personally. And if you look at that deer hunt, I do that personally. If you look at the sheep hunt, we do those personally. And so we’ve got a whole lineup of hunts. We’ve got six hunts that you can apply for. Of course the seventh hunts is doll sheep. And you can, you know, join or renew and you’re automatically in for that. And you can’t buy tickets into there. And of course you can get your, join your buddy to and, and get tickets in there and whatnot. And so anyway, check it out in our December issue. So
00:47:12:21 –> 00:47:20:27
Go back on the knife to get the knife. We’ve got a special package deal. You spend $200 and, and you get the knife as a, as a bonus. Okay?
00:47:21:06 –> 00:47:23:07
So right on. And if you spend 500,
00:47:23:26 –> 00:47:34:06
You get a hundred dollars gift card for phone scope. So you can get your phone scope. Most of ’em are under that. You might even have some money left over. And you also get the knife and you
00:47:34:06 –> 00:47:39:23
Get the knife 30 and 30 tickets, right? To split up amongst the six, six hunt, however you want. Right? And
00:47:39:23 –> 00:47:43:28
If you were to buy those 30 tickets individually at 25 bucks, you can see the value, you can see the savings. You’re saving
00:47:44:01 –> 00:47:50:20
250 bucks there and then 140 bucks in phone scope and knife. Yeah.
00:47:51:07 –> 00:48:25:12
So, well, so anyway, yeah, just talking sheet, there’s a couple more sheet punts we’re giving away. We’re obviously gonna be, we’ll be announcing our show schedule here coming up probably in the Future podcast. We’ll see at some of those. But overall, we’re getting to the end of the year. As we close this episode, we just want to give one more shout out to Jim Winham and his crew at Ken Rek. Ken Trek boots, they’ve been with us from the start. We’ve used their boots for, I don’t know, tons, 10 to 15 years, and a fifteen’s too high. You notice, IYE said 10 to 15 because my old brain’s getting older. I group stuff into five year chunks and I know it’s somewhere within there
00:48:26:18 –> 00:48:27:29
A long time. It’s not just your brain that’s getting old.
00:48:28:02 –> 00:48:43:19
That’s right. Brain, body, everything. But they’re, they’re awesome boots and sure glad I had ’em down there in Arizona. Withstand a lot of the abuse they put up too. And the Jumping Cho and all that type of stuff that stick to your tires in your, in your truck all over the place. Let along your boots.
00:48:43:20 –> 00:48:45:07
And you have a Jeff John that’s
00:48:45:15 –> 00:49:15:24
So appreciate Jim and the, and the guys there at Ken attract, you know, you may get catalogs in the mail from ’em like we all do. It’s that time of year. If you’ve got somebody or you got a pair of boots that you need, it’s into hunting season, maybe drop a few hints to your family or whatnot. Ken trek.com, spelled k e n e t r e k Ken trek.com is their website. Or 802 3 2 60 64 Great boots. And appreciate their support of us here at Epic Outdoors.
00:49:15:27 –> 00:50:01:28
And if you do have any questions about some of this gear, you know, if you’re a member and you got a question, don’t be afraid to call us and ask us like, you know, because we pretty much all these guys that we work with, all these advertisers, we’re using their stuff. So if you got a question about, you know, what, what frame pack I, I hit up Brandon when I was buying my pack, you know, hey, he said, just get this. And so anyway, if you have any questions on that, give us a holler. We we’re happy to help you figure out which pack and whatnot or, you know, which, which can it Trick boot or which, you know, there’s a hundred different items there that, that, that we use on a daily basis that we’d love to help you line up. You know, that’s, that is a service and it’s part of being a member of Epic Outdoors. You know, you get that opportunity.
00:50:02:14 –> 00:50:36:18
Okay, sounds good. Well, is there anything else you guys wanna holler, talk about? No, we’re good. We’ll call it a day. Appreciate y’all out there, especially the members here, you know, that support us here at Epic. I talked to a guy today, this says, Hey, I’m a member of your podcast, which I don’t know what that means. Listens to our podcast. And by the way, I’m now a member of the magazine. And so I was like, all right on. You know, so anybody that’s listening, if you need a little help, of course that’s what we do for a living. Living, we’re picking and choosing units. We talk about everything, you know, that makes sense from a non-resident perspective and sure. Willing to visit with you and help you as well.
00:50:36:24 –> 00:51:44:07
Well, and if it’s that time of year, it’s about to kick off. It’s December, so January the, it all starts over again. We got Arizona antelope and elk kicking off as well as Wyoming species for, you know, elk and moose, sheep and goat B and stuff. And so if you’re thinking of giving us a try, even if you do your own own applications, we, we hear it all the time about how members get one or two little pieces of advice or, or tips throughout the application year. Whether it’s, you know, a two for one on the Utah license thing, buying it first year on the end and using it the second go round. Or you know, a different angle on a different state of how to use your points or things like that. And saying how, how that one tip is well worth it. Or a member Epic member experience database when they draw a tag, a guy they talked to that we provided that information to ’em, that just gave them a few missing pieces on their hunt, we think it’s well worth a hundred dollars. Give us a try this year. Again, we, John already talked about promos we got going on right now. You’d be entering in for a doll sheet pun. If you’ve got other members that are buddies that aren’t a member, consider having us join. Get some other entries in the hat for referring ’em to us. So
00:51:44:10 –> 00:52:19:24
Go to epic outdoors.com. I forgot to mention that for the information on our, on our drawings for those seven hunts, you can get all the info there or give us a call. But speaking of that, put a little plugin. I’m putting together the January magazine right now. And so we sent out, you know, an email to our members requesting photos for Wash or Wyoming and Arizona. And I got a Shiru Moose photo back with a note that said thank Jason and the guys I switched unit after talking to Jason and I drew this, this, this Shiru Moose wouldn’t have drawn it without talking to ’em. Yeah,
00:52:19:25 –> 00:52:20:23
Nice. And it was
00:52:20:23 –> 00:52:21:10
Just really
00:52:21:10 –> 00:52:37:29
Appreciative. Those are good stories. Those are fun stories by the way. Send us some wolf photos too. Anybody that smokes a wolf, we wanna see it. And we’ll be publishing some Wolf information as well in this January magazine. All right, with that next time, feel free, give us a holler. 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7
00:52:38:19 –> 00:52:39:10
Epic out
00:52:40:02 –> 00:52:41:00
Doors.com.
00:52:41:23 –> 00:52:42:10
No, I was just
00:52:42:10 –> 00:52:53:23
Saying Epic out. Oh epic. Out. Drop the mic. How about Epic? Www epic outdoors.com No, epic out. Epic out. Epic. Out.
Recent Comments